Definition of "requiem" [re•qui•em]

• Roman Catholic Church A mass for a deceased person. (noun)
• Roman Catholic Church A musical composition for such a mass. (noun)
• A hymn, composition, or service for the dead. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "KODAMA: I think Clint Eastwood produced this film as a-- what I called a requiem for the repose of souls of the war dead, including both the Japanese as well as U.S. soldiers who fought on the island of Iwo Jima."
• "When any of these Masses are said in black vestments they are called Requiem Masses, because the priest offers them for the rest or happy repose of the soul of some dead person or persons, and the word requiem means rest."
• "To take only two significant points: it sounds very sentimental to be told that the girl Ua, after Kaaialii had jumped into the vortex "wailed upon the winds a requiem of love and grief," but a native Hawaiian has no more notion of the word requiem than he has of a syllogism."